this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
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Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui / Wellington
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Was it a political push from Whanau (seems to have started with the previous mayor) or is this just the point where everything was collapsing so we had no choice?
It's been chronically underfunded. A few years ago, I read that the estimated cost to bring Wellington's sewage and water infrastructure up to snuff was around $12B. Wellington has recently had fountains of crap springing up around town.
I moved away and I'm not really in touch with local politics there anymore, but I would guess they are forced to spend on it. I heard that it's not politically popular to spend money on maintaining infrastructure. Short term limits mean it's always more convenient for local politicians to kick the can down the road.
I moved from Wellington to Hastings which was in the middle of a massive pipe fix due to the fallout from the issues that impacted Havelock North's water supply. I've heard rumours (not bothered to dig into it because not my council) that Napier City Council has held rate rises low for years on the back of not investing in their 3 waters infrastructure as well. So its not an individual council problem as much as a systemic issue for the whole of NZ. If only we had some kind of national plan to resolve it.